Written by Vita Ayala
Art by Paco Medina
Published by Marvel Comics
Who are the Young X-Men?
Posers. That’s who they are.
Human kids masquerading as mutants, modeling their identities off famous X-Men while running around in cosplay suits made by Gambit fangirl Gimmick.
Or, as we find out in this issue, Carmen Maria Cruz, the narrator of this issue.
I do like the Vita Ayala’s approach to each issue by involving interior narration from each member of the Young X-Men to give us greater insight to their characters. My continued complaint about it, though, is that they can’t keep up the conceit but for so long before the story demands other action.
This time, the story slingshots back and forth between the kids visiting classmate Cole for dinner, and a flashbacks to those kids trapped on an alien spaceship falling back to Earth.
The flashbacks are disorienting. Were they in an escape room or computer game, or did this really happen? I kept expecting some kind of surprise, but it didn’t come.
This mishap on the spaceship doesn’t appear to have something to do with them becoming fake mutants. But Carmen isn’t feeling well, skipping out on dinner with Cole and his two dads.
Carmen’s illness may be connected to that fateful day, which remains unexplained. Why did they end up on this ship? Where is the ship from? Guessing those threads will be explored in future issues.
Gabe, Buddy and Benny/Marvel Guy learn some more about Cole’s miraculous recovery.
Arthur Nagan, a large man with enormous, white-gloved hands, has joined the family for dinner. He’s with the (doesn’t sound shady at all) Real Unity, which seems to be about splicing human and mutant biology “to better ourselves, to mold ourselves into the fittest and survive.”
And he mentions a belief in Darwinism.
(Seriously, get away from this evil man with gigantic hands.)
Meanwhile, Carmen also is dealing with some hefty imposter syndrome that manifests as overextending herself for family and friends: baby-sitting, making the Young X-Men’s costumes, even her YouTube channel as a cosplay tailor. All the while, she questions whether anyone would value her for her if she didn’t do anything for them.
Carmen also may be lovesick, too.
She’s dating Cherub/Gabe, yet a strange feeling pops up any time Cyclops-Lass/Buddy gets in her personal space. All the while, as we learned from the first issue, Buddy has a crush on Gabe and envies Carmen to some degree.
Vita Ayala, who is a queer, non-binary, Afro-Latinx writer, is weaving quite the complicated love quadrangle (?) for our teen vigilantes. Cherub is standard masc and Carmen is very femme, while Buddy presents as very butch in her Megan Rapinoe-like haircut, sharp eyeglasses, Oxford shirts, bow ties and suspenders.
If the Young X-Men are harboring a secret about not being mutants, by issue’s end Carmen has another secret in this issue about becoming beyond these strange feelings in Buddy’s presence.
As she closes the bathroom door behind her, Carmen falls to the floor, her limbs and face contorting.
What she is becoming, though, will have to wait for future issues.
